1- How / When does Alice step into the imaginary world?
> facts / what happens?

She steps / falls into the Imaginary through a rabbit hole.

The scale / perspective is illogical / non-sensical but we follow her.

Our imagination follows hers.

There is a speaking rabbit just like in fables or fairy tales. In fables or fairy tales animals are personifications / metaphors for moral values. We know the code. We accept to believe it.
> literary technique called the suspension of disbelief.
The rabbit is dressed as an upper class / aristocratic man with a waistcoat and a watch.
He says he’s “running late” and we can see him ‘running’.

2- How does Carroll represent the step into the imaginary? > symbols / literary tools
reality scene : a garden / bored / tired / with her sister / on a bank / boring book / falling asleep
SEES a rabbit.
> step into the Imaginary through perception verbs / sight and hearing
“hear the rabbit say to himself” > triggers her curiosity.

> running > pace / movement
We say “follow a story” or “to rush the reader into the story” here it’s literally what happends, we follow the rabbit and Alice > sense of speed

> the boring book is a sharp criticism of literature without images > imagination/ creativity

“Down. Down. Down.” ‘plunged’. We not only follow the rabbit and Alice, we fall ‘down down down’ with her. The movement downwards could correspond to the expression ‘Dig into the meaning’
> the ’empty marmalade jar’ is another metaphor for pleasure / curiosity and the will to discover and find treasures.

> the words ‘latitude and longitude’ appear at the bottom of the page and we could suppose that the latitude and longitude of Alice correspond to where she is in the book itself: on page 13. Numbers correspond to numbers. Not only does Carroll play with words he also plays with the book itself as a visual object. Alice in Wonderland is one of the most popular illustrated book.

Based on Carroll’s book, this edition of the story is notable for its Arts and Crafts decoration and production. As stated on the title page, it was originally presented for the benefit of The Society of Decorative Arts.

Text 2 – Extract from Through the Looking-Glass by Carroll.

We still follow Alice, but this time she steps through her looking glass, reality is upset / reversed / upside down. Best example > the Jabberwocky poem.

Usually a knight is strong, proud, charismatic. He defends / fights for his king.
> loyalty / bravery / a shield and sword / an armour
magical stories / fairy tales / Epic stories / Arthur and the Knights of the round Table
> medieval times

This knight wears ‘ a tin armour ‘ badly fitted, he’s carrying a small wooden box which is ‘upside down’ with ‘the lid open’, the horse is equipped with 3 inventions: a beehive, a mouse trap and anti-sharks anklets. This knight is ridiculous yet could appear as a twisted genius.

Are any of the knight’s inventions useful?

All the inventions could be useful in Alice’s world.
They all have a coherent, logical explanation.
Yet none of them really make sense for us, in our reality.

What object does Alice mention? Is it useful? (in general? Here?)

She has a plum-cake dish. This dish represents an ordinary useful tool.
But in this context it seems incongruous / useless unless we find a plum tree in the chapter. If we use our imagination, it might come in handy!

4- What / Who does it / he stand for?

This crazy inventor might well be a caricature of Lewis Carroll himself.
A twisted version of the knight, the upside down version of the writer.
He is here to lead us with Alice a step further into the imaginary.
He wants to see ‘useful’ things as ‘creative’ tools.